"[DEAD EYE]!"
As soon as he invoked the ability, the entire area around him shifted into monochrome, as if viewed through an old black-and-white television. The only hint of color was the red flames inside the chests of those around him.
In this altered state, time slowed dramatically for Lance, allowing him to perceive even the fastest of movements as if they were crawling at a snail's pace.
In this frozen moment, within a fraction of a second, he opened fire.
The beasts, despite their furious charge, stood no chance as the bullets he fired traveled at hypersonic speed and pierced through the creatures with devastating precision.
Each shot was perfectly placed, and each beast was shredded before they could even comprehend the attack.
No mercy was shown, and none of the Elemental Fennecs survived.
To any observer, it was almost surreal to see the auctioneer, this seemingly clownish figure, effortlessly slaughter such powerful Magic Beasts with such overwhelming ease.
"Hahahaha! That was fun," Lance laughed, clearly pleased with himself.
He glanced down at the weapon in his hand and smiled with satisfaction. The flintlock, though small and unassuming, was his most powerful magical weapon, but a simple weapon he had stolen from one of the kingdoms in the First Civilization Zone.
It was no ordinary firearm, it was a powerful relic of immense power.
A Transcendent Tier-1 magic weapon.
Whistle!
Suddenly, an arrowhead grazed past his cheek.
It was fired by a female archer with a pretty face twisted by fury and sorrow. But she wasn't the only one seething with rage.
"How dare you do such a thing to our precious beasts!" a random Rainbow Rose member cried out with a mixture of anger and grief in her voice.
The other Rainbow Rose members, who had been in the midst of battle, turned their furious gazes on him as well. Their emotions were so turbulent that, had it not been for his guards standing in their way, they might have charged him all together.
"Really now…" Lance muttered, unimpressed.
Whoosh!
With a slight bend of his knees, Lance propelled himself forward in a sudden sprint.
The female archer, the one who had wounded his cheek, was caught off guard. She tried to put some distance between them, while frantically losing magic arrows at her approaching enemy, hoping that at least one would find its mark.
Twang!
The arrow shot forth in a straight line accurately targeting her enemy's vitality as he charged forward. It was such a straightforward attack that it put Lance on the verge of laughing.
Ting! Bang! Ting!
The man either dodged the incoming arrows or shot them with his magic gun. Even though they were influenced by Wind magic to change trajectory or accelerate their speed, making it more challenging to avoid, they were still no different than a child's play for him.
"How…?!"
The female archer belatedly retreated with a face of disbelief. Her decision of swiftly abandoning the bow and drawing the dagger by her hip despite her panic was impressive. But her choice was a fatal mistake.
"Come on," Lance taunted in amusement. "I can see exactly where you're aiming with those pretty little eyes."
Fwrrsh!
At that moment, a Fire Elemental materialized before Lance with its blazing form radiating intense heat. But Lance barely acknowledged its presence as he simply raised his gun and fired.
Bang!
To the archer's horror, the bullet tore through the Fire Elemental with ease, and dispersed its flames in an instant. But the bullet didn't stop there. It continued on its deadly path, heading straight for her. Desperately, she raised her dagger to parry it, holding the blade horizontally above her head.
Splat!
The dagger did nothing to slow the hypersonic bullet. It tore through the blade, shattering it before piercing through the archer's skull. Her head exploded like a burst water balloon, and her body collapsed into a bloody heap.
"That's one for starters," Lance remarked coldly.
Tak!
Effortlessly, Lance caught the broken dagger as it fell from the lifeless hand of the archer.
With some skill of his own, he fixed the dagger in an instant. It was a stiletto with a fine blade and an extremely sharp point, an assassin's weapon, designed for fast lethal strikes.
"Bastard! You killed her…!" a voice roared from behind.
Another Rainbow Rose member, a male, charged at Lance with fury in his eyes and rapier in his hand.
"There's an even bigger fool over here?" Lance sneered. He had long sensed the attacker from the subtle shift in the air around him. "If you're going to sneak attack, maybe don't shout first? Haha! It was such a blatant move that for a moment I could have suspected it to be a diversion or mind game."
"Shut up!" the boy roared as he thrust his rapier towards Lance's chest.
With a grin, Lance spun on his heel and moved with the fluid grace of a dancer. He held the stolen dagger in a reverse grip, and with a flick of his wrist, he angled it to meet the rapier's blade.
Tik, tidik!
Sparks flew as the metals clashed, with blue flashes of light igniting from the friction. In that state, Lance's dagger slid smoothly along the length of the rapier's blade, from its tip to the hilt, as if riding along a rail.
Before the attacker could even process what was happening, Lance had disarmed him with a deft twist, leaving the boy defenseless and at his mercy.
"Hi there."
"Huk…?!"
Lance had closed the distance so quickly that the sweaty boy barely had time to react before they were practically nose-to-nose. The dagger that had slipped into Lance's hand felt perfectly timed, almost as if it had been waiting for this very moment.
The boy was easy to read with his nervousness. Lance could hardly suppress the laughter bubbling up inside him. But instead of acting on that amusement, he curled his lonely right hand into a tight fist which had been lonely from having nothing to hold into a tight fist.
And then, with all the force he could muster, he punched the boy hard.
Bam!
"Guegh?!"
His right fist landed a direct hit on the tip of the pretty boy's slender chin. His jaw was sent spinning and his head slumped backwards. This friend had been fumbling with something in his left hand, but Lance had no interest in finding out what it was, he was too busy enjoying the impact.
With quick movement, he grabbed the dazed male member of the Adventurer Party by the throat and then moved him to and fro like a shield, using him to block the arrows and magical attacks that were now aimed at them.
Puk, puk, smack, boom, puk…
"Ahh! Stop!!!"
This friend, despite his slender physique, was sturdier than most shields, thanks to his high level defenses. He was also light, making it easy for Lance to wield him like a weapon of his own.
And the best part? The boy was still alive, adding to his utility.
As the frequency of arrows decreased, Lance tilted his head and grinned.
"Hey buddy, can you help me out a bit?"
"H-Huh?!"
Before the pretty boy could fully comprehend what was happening, Lance deeply stabbed into his belly. He was careful to avoid any major arteries, as he wanted his new "friend" to last a while longer.
With his left hand gripping his magic gun and his right holding the impaled boy like a shield, he charged in.
The other Rainbow Rose members were surprised by his brutal use of their comrade. They hesitated, unsure whether to continue their attack or risk harming their own.
Seeing their hesitation, Lance decided to help them make up their minds.
"Come on," he taunted with mockery in his voice. "Don't you want to save your friend? Or are you just going to let him bleed out while you stand there?"
The uncertainty in their eyes was all the encouragement he needed. Lance grinned, and raised his hand, before bursting out a series of bullets.
"Let Blake go, you meani—"
Bang!
A young girl with a staff barely had time to finish her plea before a bullet tore through her neck, severing her head cleanly from her body.
The force sent her little cute head flying into the air, and with her death, a dozen or so Elementals she had summoned vanished as if they had never existed.
Splrrsh!
Blood erupted from the severed part of her neck like a fountain, painting the battlefield with crimson. Right next to her corpse, another pretty little woman, now drenched in the blood of her decapitated friend, wailed in grief, her voice breaking as she cried out the name of her friend.
"Isabella! N-No! You can't be—"
Before she could finish, Lance shoved the barrel of his gun into her open mouth.
"Kyagh—?!"
"Oh, poor dear," Lance mocked with false sympathy in his voice. "Gonna cry about it?"
Bang!
The shot rang out as the bullet ripped through her hindbrain, the part of the brain responsible for controlling respiration, heartbeat, digestive functions and so on. It obliterated any chance of survival, and her body crumpled lifelessly to the ground.
Meanwhile, the boy Lance had been using as a shield was nearing his end as well, and his strength and Mana that protected most of his body faded with each passing second.
"It's time for me to forget this short friendship of ours," Lance said with a cold finality.
Crack!
With a fast merciless twist, Lance snapped the man's neck, ending his life without a hint of hesitation or remorse. The body slumped in his grasp, no longer of any use to him.
Retrieving the dagger he had once used as a symbol of their brief "friendship," Lance snapped his fingers, and flames erupted over the corpse, consuming it in seconds.
"Ahhh," he inhaled deeply as the scent of burning flesh filled the air. "I do love the smell of LGBarbeQue."
His words dripped with dark humor, as if the carnage was nothing more than a twisted joke to him.
As he was about to continue his slaughter, unbeknownst to him, a small group of humans were doing something that will affect him greatly.